Large Display, Massive PLANS
Gaming Arts highlights its new VertX Grand cabinet with a trio of powerful new games
By Frank Legato
For slot-makers lately, great new games and fantastic new cabinets have gone hand in hand. Numerous of those new cabinet presentations these days are in huge formats—and game developers have utilized these giant canvases to develop some of the best new game experiences on the slot floor.
That is the way it’s been with the VertX Grand cabinet  from Las Vegas–based Gaming Arts. The VertX Grand, unveiled  last summer time, characteristics an ultra-bright, 4K 49-inch portrait monitor, theater-high quality sound, an ultra-bright  LCD button  deck, programmable LED play buttons, and consideration-grabbing LED side lights.
Developed for the duration of the pandemic shutdowns of 2020, the format is hitting its stride this summer time with 3 fantastic games that take full advantage of that bigger-than- life presentation.
“We’ve been actually pleased with the overall performance of our game titles on our VertX Grand cabinet,” says Jean Venneman, chief operating officer of Gaming Arts. “The cabinet has shown to perform effectively on the floor, and it is visually stunning. And now we’ve got 3 further new games that we think players are going to truly, truly get pleasure from.”
KUNG FU EMPRESS
The initial of these 3 has just been released and is currently extremely popular. Kung Fu Empress, based on the well-known video game of the identical name, makes use of the large VertX Grand show for an expanding reels feature to excellent impact, but that is only a single of a generous package of bonus and principal-game characteristics.
“We’re really excited about just how function-rich the game is,”Venneman says. “It offers a ton of entertainment, a ton of graphics, a ton of animations and a ton of intros and outros that are actually entertaining. The bonuses are really graphically intense—it packs a genuine punch as far as the visuals.  And then it is a great game on leading of that.”
Kung Fu Empress delivers that punch from the initial press of the “Play” button, when the main character, Chipao, does her Kung Fu move that throws one particular or far more wild symbols to the reel array. When the Chipao wild symbol stops on the fifth reel, all image symbols on that reel become Chipao symbols, significantly increasing the payouts for players.
There are random “battles” that happen throughout game play. When a “PicA” symbol lands on the reels, it triggers the “Punch Bonus,” in which the Kung Fu Empress attacks the cute “Log Man” to award bonus prizes. The bonus prizes hold coming until the enemy collapses.
A wild symbol in the base game also can randomly trigger the “Tile Break Function,” in which the player wins the prize or jackpot displayed when the Kung Fu Empress breaks the pile of tile.
In the totally free-game feature, the reels expand from four rows to eight rows, bumping the techniques to win from 50 to 100, for an thrilling hold-and-re-spin function. In the course of free of charge games, a battle appears each three spins. If you win the battle, the enemy symbol is converted to the Chipao wild symbol, and the totally free spins return to three. Filling the screen with Chipao symbols returns the Grand progressive jackpot, resetting at $five,000.The array of enemies may possibly start off modest but progress to ever-rising battle intensity along with a lot more intense payouts to the player.
“We discover this to be quite diverse from what we’ve seen in the market,”Venneman says. “Kung Fu Empress has got wonderful game play and is visually gorgeous, with endless special game characteristics. It is just an extremely exciting game to play.”
BRIAN CHRISTOPHER’S POP’N PAYS Far more
Gaming Arts, like a lot of slot producers these days, has been aided in developing popularity for new games by the new crop of “slot influencers”—YouTube stars who live stream slot play on new games, hosting their own play with enthusiastic narration of wins,  losses, bonuses and game features, with some possessing far-reaching groups of fans and followers.
The prime YouTube slot influencer is Brian Christopher, whose YouTube channel BCSlots has some 479,000 subscribers and has logged a outstanding 318 million views since its 2016 launch. Christopher himself, who has some 41,500 Instagram followers, has become a slot guru of sorts across America. Millions of fans have watched his videos—the average view time is an amazing 18 minutes— and have become familiar with his preferred slots any quantity of catch phrases he utilizes to get players excited about features of a given slot game.
The Plaza, situated in Downtown Las Vegas, even has a specific zone devoted solely to Christopher’s favored games—a space he usually utilizes to collect crowds of his fans to reside-stream new games.
On July 7, he is undertaking that with his really own signature game—Brian Christopher’s Pop’N Pays More—which Gaming Arts developed with substantial input from Christopher himself.
“We are genuinely appreciative of Brian and what he does,”Venneman says. “We were a quite young slot supplier when we launched the original Pop’N Pays series in 2019.Brian located the game, loved the game and genuinely helped market the game on his channel. We feel that he actually did help and help in acquiring that game out into the marketplace and added to its accomplishment, by displaying his enthusiasm for the game.”
When it came time to move the Pop’N Pays  series—a loved ones  of games distinguished by exciting themes and entertaining features—to the new VertX Grand cabinet, it was a no-brainer to create a Brian Christopher  signature slot. “We’ve collaborated quite closely with him to develop a game that he loves,” says Venneman, “and to use his brand in a superb way that I believe his player base will truly take pleasure in. It has endless voice-overs employing several of his well-identified sayings, and a lot of the imagery that’s related to him and his brand.”
Christopher says he was involved in designing the game from begin to finish. “Pop’N Pays was already a hit amongst my fans, so when they asked me about partnering on a new version, I jumped  on it,” he says. “They had already worked out what they wanted for their other iterations of Pop’N Pays More—Piñatas Ole and Big Top—and despite the fact that you will notice a lot of variations among them and my game, all 3 games in the series are exceptional.
“I provided up methods to add far more attributes, and a ton more interaction. I was able to offer input on the music, the wording, symbols, sounds and performance. Nothing at all was off limits, so long as it kept to the Pop’N Pays brand.”
The Brian Christopher slot, with 1,047 approaches to win in the base game, has a feature that expands reels 2–5 up to eight symbols higher. At full expansion, there are 16,384 methods to win on each and every spin. There is a free game function supplying up to 15 totally free games with frequent re-triggers.
All through game play, Brian Christopher’s avatar pops up as cash-on-reels symbols. And he essentially hosts his own game, utilizing his most well-known catchphrases. “Oh Nelly!”  following a huge win. “Line it UP!” in anticipation of a winning spin. “Do it to it!” “It’s all about timing!” And one of the most clever and frequent: right after a close to-miss where a symbol lands just short of a combination—“Rude!”
“Aside from a few hidden Easter eggs that I’ll permit my fans to uncover, the Brian character can be super generous,” Christopher says. “If you are missing a single bonus symbol, Brian can say his catchphrase ‘Rude!’ and supply the third bonus symbol! If you have a complete row of popping Brians but are missing an essential one, Brian can place an additional one particular. In the bonus, the popping Brians can place up two or even 3 fingers to signify two or three prizes alternatively of the usual 1 in normal spins.”
“We’re really excited about operating with Brian,” says Venneman.“  He’s been an amazing partner to work with, so we’re hopeful that his fans and players alike genuinely take pleasure in this thrilling new game.”
“We’re a ideal match,” adds Christopher.  “We are both super innovative and forward considering.  As my fans currently loved Pop’N Pays due to its continuous action, enjoyable bonuses and catchy music, this was the apparent decision.”
CASINO WIZARD VIP
As  the planet recovered from Covid-19,  Gaming Arts launched its special Casino Wizard electronic table game, which is the world’s most sophisticated electronic table game featuring table game favorites blackjack, roulette, craps and baccarat along with new side bets. It gained instant reputation from coast to coast.
This August, a super-charged version of Casino Wizard will launch on the VertX Grand cabinet. The large monitor and intense graphics make the 4 original games pop like never prior to. What’s much more, Gaming Arts has doubled the quantity of games on the multi-game unit. The new Casino Wizard VIP adds Pai Gow Poker, Super Huge six Wheel, Swap’Em Poker and Triple Card Poker to the original four selections.
According to Venneman, there also are a great many enhancements to the original 4 games such as more side bets and many revolutionary progressive jackpots.
“There’s just a lot of a fantastic variety of entertainment and fun within this one particular machine,” she says. “Whether players are playing our game since the tables are complete, the minimums are as well higher, or players find traditional table games as well intimidating, we’re hoping table players and slot players will expand their horizons and take pleasure in far more range and the beautiful video presentation on the huge screen.
“These 3 new titles, along with a lot of far more, thrive on the VertX Grand format.”
And it could be the start off of something… well, massive, to say the least.
